Joan of Arc

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Brings us afresh a gripping life of Joan of Arc. This book gives us a living, breathing young woman; a roaring girl fighting the English, and taking sides in a bloody civil war that was tearing fifteenth century France apart.

The Good Book Guide Review. Joan of Arc (c. 1412–1431) is a great saint, still a household name 700 years later. Born to a peasant family in Domremy in northeast France, she believed that God had chosen her to lead France to victory in its long-running war with England. She persuaded Charles of Valois to allow her to lead a French army to the besieged city of Orleans where the French achieved a great victory over the English; but Joan was captured and burned at the stake in 1431. This masterful, highly charged, beautifully written account of this remarkable woman’s life portrays Joan in all her glory.
~ Julia Hamilton

Synopsis

Joan of Arc by Helen Castor

Acclaimed historian Helen Castor brings us afresh a gripping life of Joan of Arc. Instead of the icon, she gives us a living, breathing young woman; a roaring girl fighting the English, and taking sides in a bloody civil war that was tearing fifteenth century France apart. Here is a portrait of a 19-year-old peasant who hears voices from God; a teenager transformed into a warrior leading an army to victory, in an age that believed women should not fight. And it is also the story behind the myth we all know, a myth which began to take hold at her trial: that of the Maid of Orleans, the saviour of France, a young woman burned at the stake as a heretic, a woman who five hundred years later would be declared a saint. Joan and her world are brought vividly to life in this refreshing new take on the medieval world. Helen Castor brings us to the heart of the action, to a woman and a country in turmoil, a world where no-one - not Joan herself, nor the people around her, princes, bishops, soldiers or peasants - knew what would happen next.

About the Author

Helen Castor is a historian of medieval England, and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Her first book, Blood & Roses, was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2005 and won the English Association's Beatrice White Prize in 2006. Her second, She Wolves, was made into a major BBC2 TV series. She lives in London with her husband and son.